Miority govt for the first time in TN

Chennai, May 12 (UNI) For the first time in the history of Tamil Nadu politics, a minority goverment will be sworn in tomorrow under the leadership of DMK President and Chief Minister-designate M Karunanidhi.

The DMK octogenarian, who takes up the reins of the state for the record fifth time, would head a minority government for the first time in the party's history as it could win only 96 of the 234 seats in the May eight assembly election.

After entering electoral politics for the first time in 1957, the DMK caputured power in 1967 for the first time and then in 1971, 1989 and 1996, but whenever it came to power, it had a comfortable majority.

Still 22 seats short of a simple majority, the DMK government, to be sworn in by Governor S S Barnala at 1100 hrs tomorrow at the Nehru Indoor Stadium, would rely on the support of its allies, the Congress, Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and the Left parties to complete its full five-year term.

All the allies have offered unconditional support to the DMK government. While the left parties directly sent their letters of support to the Governor, Mr Karunanidhi handed over letters of support from the Congress and the PMK, when he called on the Governor this afternoon to stake claim for forming the government.

Mr Karunanidhi has accomodated ten of his erstwhile cabinet colleagues, while opting for as many as 20 new faces, including his son M K Stalin, in the 31-member Ministry.

Mr Stalin, who was denied a Cabinet berth on two earlier occasions when the DMK came to power in 1989 and 1996, was given the fourth place in the Cabinet after party stalwarts K Anbazhagan and Arcot N Veerasamy.

Earlier, the newly elected DMK MLAs, at a meeting at Anna Arivalyam, unanimously elected Mr Karunanidhi as the leader of the legislature party. Immediately after his election, Mr Karunanidhi called on the Governor at Raj Bhavan and staked his claim.

After Mr Karunanidhi handed over to the Governor the letter intimating his election as leader of the DMK legislature party, and the list of persons to be appointed Ministers, the Governor invited him to form the Ministry and appointed those in the list as Ministers.

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